The day before the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) denounced acts of violence, vandalism and sabotage perpetrated by some “malicious” candidates against its personnel, material and goods during the elections.

Through a communiqué, the electoral body condemned such actions and assured that in the face of these extremely serious acts, punishable by law and contrary to good practices, it remains firm in its determination not to allow these crimes to go unpunished.

It referred to the creation of a commission to investigate such actions of violence and promised that appropriate measures will be taken against those who perpetrated them.

Meanwhile, a group of presidential candidates called for the “immediate annulment” of the elections as “chaotic” and “marred by massive frauds” which, they said, are documented by all stakeholders.

Franck Diongo, Seth Kikuni, Matata Ponyo, Delly Sesanga and Moise Katumbi also alluded in their statement to irregularities recorded in several polling stations across the country.

They called for the resignation of the president of the CENI and his collaborators, whom they blamed for planning an electoral fraud and for having deprived millions of Congolese of their right to vote.

The candidates already affirmed that they will not accept the results of the process nor the institutions that will emerge from it, and urged the people to mobilize massively throughout the DRC.

Among the alleged fraud strategies listed by the coalition are the reduction of the presence of opposition witnesses, the late opening of the polling stations, prolonging the voting and organizing it in political party headquarters and military camps, in addition to pre-configuring the machines with reserves of votes in favor of Felix Tshisekedi.

However, the international electoral observation missions so far give a positive balance of the process.

The joint observation mission of the Catholic and Protestant churches stated that 84 percent of the polling stations were in the places provided for by law, and that 90 percent of these were open and functioning normally. The Carter Center, for its part, affirmed that “the elections went relatively smoothly”.

The observation missions of the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) considered that the elections were conducted at an acceptable level, despite logistical difficulties and some cases of violence.

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